1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a work vehicle having, in an engine room, an engine and an exhaust treatment apparatus for treating exhaust gas of the engine.
2. Description of the Related Art
The above-described work vehicle includes an engine hood which can be opened and closed between a closed state for covering the engine from above and an opened state for exposing the upper side of the engine to the outside. Inside the engine room, the engine and the exhaust treatment apparatus are arranged in a predetermined positional relationship relative to each other. For instance, in a work vehicle disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2011-126488 (JP 2011-126488 A), an exhaust treatment apparatus is disposed upwardly of the engine. This exhaust treatment apparatus is an exhaust gas purifying apparatus (a DPF: diesel particulate filter) for purifying exhaust gas of the engine.
Such an exhaust gas purifying apparatus (DPF) effects a regeneration treatment in which a collected particulate matter is heated and combusted for its elimination by means of heating means such as a heater. Therefore, in case the exhaust gas purifying apparatus (DPF) is provided as an exhaust purifying apparatus inside an engine room, this exhaust purifying apparatus functions as a heat generating body, such that an amount of air present around the exhaust purifying apparatus is heated. Hence, if the air heated by the exhaust purifying apparatus stagnates inside the engine room, this may provide adverse effect by the heat to various components disposed in the vicinity of the engine.
For the reason described above, in case of the work vehicle disclosed in JP 2011-126488 A, a discharge opening is formed at an upper portion of the engine hood, so that air in the engine room may be discharged to the outside through this discharge opening, thereby to restrict occurrence of stagnation of air heated by the exhaust gas purifying apparatus inside the engine room. However, with provision of the discharge opening alone, the air in the engine room may not be positively guided to the discharge opening, due e.g. to generation of a turbulent flow inside the engine room, such that the air heated by the exhaust purifying apparatus may not be effectively discharged to the outside. Further, in this work vehicle, for positively guiding air inside the engine room to the discharge opening, there is provided a partition plate that extends from the rear side of the exhaust purifying apparatus toward the discharge opening. However, as this partition plate has a special shape, this presents a cost disadvantage.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described state of the art. An object of the invention is to provide a simple discharging arrangement capable of discharging generated heat to the outside, from an exhaust purifying apparatus mounted inside an engine room.